\u201cMereana, this past year you\u2019ve shown me what true courage, bravery, resilience, and grace looks like.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve completely changed my perspective on life and I have become a better man.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said her fight with cancer helped to inspire him before matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was nervous before games or felt myself feeling afraid, I would tell myself, \u2018Come on, mate, your missus has cancer and she\u2019s fighting for her life, and I can\u2019t even play a game\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s afraid for her life, and I\u2019m afraid of tackling someone. Stop being a little B. I. T. C. H.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of newfound strength, bravery, and resilience I now have because of you is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nui went on to thank Mereana for the laughter, happiness and joy she brought to his life and the positive impact she had on everyone around her. <\/p>\n
\u201cMereana, I\u2019ll never forget you, and you\u2019ll always have a special place in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wellington Rugby said Mereana Muriwai died surrounded by her wh\u0101nau after a courageous battle against cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is remembered as a loving, thoughtful and fiercely supportive young wahine whose warmth uplifted everyone around her,\u201d the union said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur deepest aroha goes out to Nui, the wh\u0101nau, and all who loved Mereana.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur rugby community stands firmly with you at this incredibly difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n
A funeral announcement said she \u201ctouched the hearts of everyone who knew her with her warmth, kindness, and spirit\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThough her time with us was far too short, her love, laughter, and light will never be forgotten.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe leaves behind her loving husband and family, who will carry on her legacy with the love and strength she inspired in all of them.<\/p>\n
Mereana Muriwai had been diagnosed with small cell carcinoma of the ovary, hypercalcaemic type (SCCOHT) \u2013 a form of ovarian cancer that affects only one in 10 million women worldwide. Photo \/ Hurricanes<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are deeply grateful to Hospice Waikato for their compassionate care and support during her final days.\u201d<\/p>\n
In June, the Hurricanes made a plea for donations to help with her treatment, which included intensive rounds of chemotherapy, two major abdominal surgeries, high-dose radiation, and immunotherapy.<\/p>\n
A Give a Little page helped to raise nearly $85,000 for her.<\/p>\n
Friends have left tributes to Mereana online, including one that described her as an inspiration to others. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, she was the embodiment of the colour yellow,\u201d one mourner said, \u201cAlways making people laugh, a goofball, lively, bright.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was easy to be blinded by her aura, but in the most warming way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mereama Muriwai\u2019s funeral took place this morning in Hamilton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMereana, this past year you\u2019ve shown me what true courage, bravery, resilience, and grace looks like. \u201cYou\u2019ve completely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,9092,42772,2534,1259,634,15124,16555,49155,97210,57387,15121,42034,111,139,69,8205,6327,213,1842,1354,4741],"class_list":["post-144149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-against","tag-aggressive","tag-cancer","tag-community","tag-death","tag-fight","tag-form","tag-hurricanes","tag-mereana","tag-mourn","tag-mourning","tag-muriwai","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rare","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-wife","tag-woman","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}